November is annually celebrated as National Hospice Month.  During this month, many hospices concentrate on sponsoring activities to reach out and educate the community about everything hospice has to offer. More and more hospices are using Five Wishes to accomplish that goal. Aging with Dignity works directly with more than 400 hospices and we'd like to share some of the good ideas we've seen through the years:

Why is Five Wishes a good outreach tool for Hospice Month?

  • Five Wishes approaches advance care planning in a way that is very compatible with hospice care.  We all know that dying is more than just a medical moment - so our advance care planning conversations should include the issues that matter most.
  • It allows hospices to reach a broad audience with a resource that is of interest to people of all ages and health conditions.  In other words, it helps raise awareness of hospice care before a health crisis.
  • Five Wishes gets people in your community thinking about what good care at the end of life is all about -- which makes it an ideal time to educate them about your hospice services

Outreach Ideas

  • Team up with a business partner to host a presentation on Five Wishes for employees and/or clients (see article)

  • Promote a Five Wishes Day or Week with local celebrities (elected officials or other well known residents) signing their own “Five Wishes.”

  • Host a Five Wishes party along the lines of a Tupperware® home party (see article).

  • Contact faith community leaders and offer to come and present Five Wishes to their members (see article).

  • Civic organizations welcome your appeal to help members plan ahead for health care decisions (see article).

  • Distribute your customized Five Wishes where people shop - in malls and grocery stores.  It's always helpful to go to the people instead of asking them to come to you (see article).

  • Contact your public radio stations and make yourself available for a call in show.  Think about having someone from Aging with Dignity join you on the phone!

  • Include Five Wishes every time you are part of a community health fair.

  • Use Cinco Deseos to reach your Spanish-speaking community.

Customize the Five Wishes that you distribute

All of these outreach efforts will have added value when providing copies of Five Wishes with information about your hospice on the outside back cover. You may wish to include your mission statement and perhaps how Five Wishes fits that mission. Posted here are a few samples of previous custom orders of Five Wishes.

Click here to view samples of customized back pages

When ordering 1,000 or more copies, the customization is free. If you’d like to have your customized Five Wishes by the end of October, your order must be finalized by Sept. 26th. If you miss this deadline, please call for other options.

Contact Aging with Dignity's Outreach Department for more information regarding customizing Five Wishes and community outreach:  Email Ann Ashley or Gloria Keeney or call 850-681-2010 ext 105 (Ann) or ext. 104 (Gloria)

For more information about Five Wishes or to request standard copies, visit our Five Wishes page.  Additional resources include the Five Wishes Video and Next Steps guide.
 
 
 

 

 From the Hospice Perspective:
 


"We have dropped off the Five Wishes at physician offices in town with our rolodex card to call us if they would like more, the response has been overwhelming and we continually have physicians now calling our office and asking for Five Wishes."

Tom Moreland
CEO, Iowa Hospice
 
 


"I would like to add that as an idea for Hospice Month, last year we first rolled out the Five Wishes campaign to our own hospice employees (all 600+) of them and encouraged the employees and their families to complete their Five Wishes.  The campaign then proceeded to extend to our community at large."

Christy Potter
Marketing Manager, Hospice of Palm Beach County (FL)
 
       


"Five Wishes has made it easier for professionals to open the door to discussing end-of-life care issues and advance directives with patients and their family members.  We use Five Wishes in our admission packet to replace the advance directive documents we used in the past. In October, the Greater St. Louis Hospice Organization will be setting up in libraries around St. Louis to increase hospice awareness and will make Five Wishes available upon request.

Matt Brauss,
Vice President
AmHeart Hospice (MO)
 
       


"Covenant Hospice has made extensive use of the Five Wishes documents throughout northern Florida and southern Alabama to assist individuals in formulating their advance directives. Although there are numerous documents which may used to express one's desires when facing end-of-life issues, we find Five Wishes to be extremely user-friendly, personal, and effective."

Dale O. Knee
President & CEO
Covenant Hospice Pensacola, Florida
 
       


"We use Five Wishes in our advance directives presentation that is given to faith communities and as part of HospiceCare’s 2005 Education Series.  It’s a very popular presentation and always generates lively discussion.  When HospiceCare has a table at corporate events and community fairs, we give out Five Wishes.  Often, people ask for extras for friends or family because they say Five Wishes was so easy for them to fill out and really got them to think about important issues."

Kristy Mitchell HospiceCare of Boulder and Broomfield Counties (CO)